Natural gas is odorless. For safety reasons, odorant must be added to natural gas in order to detect leaks in natural gas systems. Typically, odorant is transferred from an odorant storage chamber to natural gas flowing in a gas line. To accomplish this, several odorization systems are available. One type of odorization system is a farm tap or wick-style odorizer.
Farm taps are small inline odorization systems that are usually composed of an odorant chamber connected to a gas line by a fitting. Typically, a cotton wick is inserted through the fitting such that the majority of the wick is located in the odorant chamber, with the remaining smaller portion of the wick being exposed to the natural gas stream in the gas line. In the odorant chamber, the wick contacts and becomes saturated with the odorant. By capillary action, the odorant travels up the wick and then is vaporized into the natural gas stream in the gas line, resulting in odorized natural gas downstream of the odorizer.
Currently, farm taps require the owner or operator to physically pour odorant into the odorant chamber. This is usually accomplished by disconnecting the odorant chamber from the gas line and pouring the odorant through the opening to which the fitting is attached during odorizer operation. If the farm tap or wick-style odorizer is equipped with a second opening in addition to the opening at the connection between the chamber and the gas line, odorant may also be poured into the odorant chamber by unplugging the second opening and pouring the odorant in through the second opening.
Regardless of how pouring is accomplished, at least three problems exist with regard to the current practice of pouring odorant into the odorant chamber. First, pouring usually results in a sufficient amount of odor being released into the surrounding environment, creating nuisance and exposure problems for nearby residences or businesses. A second problem is that the set-up and physical pouring of the odorant is not time efficient. A third problem is that the odorant chamber is typically disconnected from the gas line during odorant pouring, temporarily halting natural gas odorization. This third problem is typical in farm tap styles where the pouring in of odorant requires the removal of the odorant chamber from the gas line.
Therefore, what is needed is an apparatus and method that allows odorant to be transferred to an odorant chamber without exposing odorant to the environment and creating a nuisance, wasting field personnel work time, and interrupting natural gas odorization.